ODD PRAYER

Kamto Baehaqi was the student of Islamic traditional boarding school (pesantren), namely Pesantren Sabilil Huda, in Banyuwangi, East Java. Once when it was holiday, he went home to his village, Ngawi. As the pesantren’s student, most of the people in his village respected them and even they called Kamto as kiyai.
Having new title, it made Kamto had to do some jobs. One of these jobs is that he had to pray to God on behalf of someone. Kiyai Kamto was still young at that time and he had not known much about prayer in Arabic. In village society, most of the people understood that prayer is in Arabic. In their understanding, it is not prayer if someone uses in other language, not in Arabic, although they did not know the meaning of the prayer at all.
People in kiyai Kamto’s village are peasants. They always made a ceremony after harvest time. It is a symbol of an expression of gratitude to God. People usually invited kiyai to lead this ceremony since they thought that kiyai is the good person in understanding Islam. So, in their thought, kiyai could connect their wishes to their God.
When kiyai Kamto was reading a book in the waiting room, the door was knocked. He came to the door and opened it. He saw a old man in front of the door.
“ Can I help you, sir?” Said kiyai Kamto.
“ Yes, yai. I want to invite you to my house.” He answered.
“What happened in your house so you invite me?” kiyai Kamto asked.
“I have kenduri (ceremony) in my house.” Said the guest.
Kiyai Kamto kept silent. He knew that it means he had to lead that ceremony. He also knew that he must be a leader in tahlilan (pray together). After a while, kiyai Kamto said “ Insya Allah, I will come”. Then the guest went home.
Kiyai Kamto was confused what he would do in that ceremony. He only memorized a short prayer in Arabic. In kenduri (ceremony), it is usual that kiyai will pray in long time in Arabic.
Finally, he came to the ceremony although his heart beat rapidly. There were ten peope waited for him but all of them are peasants who knew little about Islam. After talking each other, the host welcomed kiyai Kamto to pray(berdo’a).
While he said a short prayer (rabbana atinaa fidunya khasanah wa fil akhirati khasanah wa qinaa ‘adza ba nar), all of the people said ‘amin’. Because kiyai Kamto believed that all of the people who came in that ceremony did not know Arabic at all, he continoued with Arabic words that he learnt in Pesantren. He pronounced ‘nahw’ words (fa’ala yaf’ulu fa’lan, etc) or Arabic grammar words as long as he remembered. It is very suprising that all of the people said ‘amin’.
Finally, with great confident he continued with many Arabic words though they were not related to ‘do’a’ or prayer at all. And all of the people remained to keep their attention to prayer by saying ‘ amin’ many times.
After he could not remember other Arabic words, he stopped his ritual. Afterthat, the host invited all of the people to eat the meal. And kiyai Kamto got the best one. He enjoyed his status . While kiyai Kamto ate, someone told him that he was the best kiyai because he could pray in fifteen minutes! It was the longest prayer! Kiyai Kamto only smiled. In his heart, he laughed. It was very easy to deceive the people who did not know much about Islam. They thought all of Arabic words were sacred language and related to Islam.